“Is that just because he’s older than you?”
“He’s not,” Lucas said. “I’m older.”
“Then why can’t you kill him?”
Lucas ran his hand through his hair. “I told you,” he growled. “They’re difficult to track down even for the oldest werewolves.”
“But you’ve had three hundred years to kill him and it’s obvious you’ve fought before. If you’re older than he is why haven’t you—?”
“I just can’t, okay?” His face was livid and I pressed my mouth shut, subdued.
“So, what does this all mean?” I asked, referring to the murder last night. “Couldn’t Vincent be killing these girls and not bothering to hide the bodies, because he . . . I don’t know, wants you to find him?”
“Vincent is very old—not nearly the oldest—but he knows better than to leave his prey after he kills it. Werewolves aren’t the only reason they make sure to hide the bodies when they’re through. The vampires have their own hierarchy, and improper disposal of prey is a punishable offense. If Vincent is the one doing this, which I don’t think he would, but if he is, then he’s got orders to do it from someone higher up than him.” He rubbed his fingers into his eyes. “But if I know Vincent, he’s not gonna take orders from anyone. Not unless he’s got something to gain by doing it.”
I watched Lucas glare into the distance, wondering what he was thinking.
“I was so sure it was him,” I murmured. “But maybe that’s just because Vincent is the only vampire I know. How many are there?”
“It’s impossible to know the true number since they’re so damn good at concealing themselves. Plus they’re constantly creating more and more of their kind. But I’d say over a half a million, conservatively.”
I felt my lips part all by themselves. “And are there just as many werewolves?”
“More,” he said. “But most of them are wild, living out of society. It’s where all those Bigfoot stories and stuff come from.”
I nodded, remembering Mark’s ghost story and his strange attack afterward. I hadn’t told anyone about it yet, but I thought if anyone should know, it was Lucas. He was supposed to be protecting me, after all, and Mark had threatened me.
Plus I was aching to spill.
I eyed Lucas for a moment and then said, “Hey, can I tell you something?”
“Sure thing.”
“Two months ago I was camping out on the La Poudre River with some friends, and one of them—his name is Mark—I saw him talking to this guy in the woods in the middle of the night. He was all the way across the river and I didn’t see a boat or anything. And then when I walked back to camp, Mark pretty much assaulted me.”
Lucas’s eyes sharpened.
“He had a gun and he punched me. And then when I confronted him about it later, he acted like the whole thing never happened.” I shook my head, trying to sort everything out. “I have a feeling he’s involved with Vincent somehow. He was at his Halloween party and then disappeared, probably around the same time Vincent ran off. Maybe he’s the one who killed the girl that night. I don’t know ... but he really scares me.”
“I’ll keep an eye out. You don’t have to worry about anyone hurting you, all right? Especially not a human.”
I nodded, still unsure.
He caught my gaze in his and held it. “Hey,” he said softly. “I may be a werewolf, but that doesn’t mean I’m not trustworthy. I’ll protect you.”
I sucked in a deep breath, letting his words sink in. It was usually so hard for me to trust men, but trusting Lucas was as natural as the beat of my heart. It unnerved me.
Lucas continued to look at me, a strange emotion plaguing his eyes. I noticed they didn’t switch to silver as often anymore. Maybe he was getting used to me. Somehow the thought made me sad, but I couldn’t begin to think why.
He opened his mouth and looked like he was going to say something, but then he snapped it shut and turned away, picking at the frayed edge of the couch.
“What?” I said, unable to stand the fact that he was keeping something from me. I wanted to know everything, including the things he didn’t want to say.
He turned back toward me and leaned in a little. “I don’t like you going out to the La Poudre alone,” he said finally.
“I wasn’t alone. I had Derek and four other people with me.”
“That’s like adding filet mignon to the buffet ... you get me?”
“No,” I said, frowning.
“Faith,” he said, coming even closer to me. “We’ve got a mess of vampires in this area.... Vampires who drink human blood to live. And one in particular who wants you, more than any other. They can smell blood for miles, and Vincent has had some of yours, making you easier to locate. It would take him next to no time to get to you, even from miles away. Can you see how being out in the woods alone would make me nervous?”
“Yeah,” I murmured, shaking slightly and not just from fear. Lucas was very close to me. I could smell the scent of his skin—pine needles and loamy earth—intoxicating me and making my brain fuzzy.
I backed up and Lucas’s face tightened. He backed away too, a pained look in his now silver eyes. “Promise me you won’t go into the woods alone, all right?” he said gruffly.
“No problem,” I said, trying to keep the emotion out of my voice.
“Faith.” Lucas eyed me intently. “I mean it. Do not go out there. Ever.”
“I won’t,” I whispered. My heart stuttered unevenly. “I promise.” My eyes remained fixed on his. I was unable to rip them away, even as I felt myself being pulled closer. It was like looking at the sun. You wanted to just because it was forbidden. Because you might go blind from its brilliance. Somehow I was closer to him again, but I don’t remember either of us moving. I breathed him in.
Then Lucas’s phone rang loudly and he jumped up. I stood too, but I had no idea why. I watched Lucas talk on the phone and gradually noticed he wasn’t speaking English. I watched his lips move around the strange words, realized what I was doing, and went to the window, skin prickling in the cold air.
Lucas hung up the phone and came to stand behind me—not too close, but just close enough to make my face redden.
“You wanna get something to eat before class?” he asked.
I nodded my head, too breathless to trust myself with speaking.
What is wrong with me?
After breakfast, Lucas walked me to my first class. We stopped outside of the building and I shivered in the light breeze fluttering through the sunny day.
I looked up at Lucas, kicking my feet a little.
“Thanks for breakfast,” I said awkwardly. “I had no idea someone could eat so many waffles.”
Lucas shrugged. “I like waffles.”
My face broke into a goofy smile, which he returned, looking equally silly. My heart drummed loudly at the sight of one of his rare grins. I needed to stop this. I needed to stop staring at him so much. This was going in a bad direction. I couldn’t let myself develop feelings for Lucas—look how it had turned out with Derek. And if Lucas had feelings for me—an unlikely scenario—I didn’t want to put myself in a position that might leave me hurting, yet again, no matter how easy it was for me to trust him.
“So I’ll see you in a couple hours?” I said. I wasn’t able to keep that inexplicable hope out of my voice. No matter how scared I was that Lucas might one day hurt me, I just couldn’t quite stop hoping that he wouldn’t.
“No,” he said.
I felt my face fall, right along with my heart.
“Why not?” I asked.
“I gotta run up to Gould and talk with my dad.”
“Your dad?”
“My pack master. We’re not related, but we’re still family. Rolf isn’t really my dad just like Julian isn’t really my brother, but they’re the only family I’ve got.”
“Why do you have to talk to Rolf?” I tried to keep the fear out of my voice, but I think Lucas heard it anyway.
He smiled down at me in this sweet, comforting way that made me feel warm and safe. The vibe rolling off him magnified the feeling. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ve got everything under control. You’ll be safe while it’s light out. Besides, Julian’s around here somewhere on Derek’s tail, so if something happened—which it won’t—you’ll be taken care of.”
“You’ll be back by dark, though, right?”
“Yep,” he said. He looked around at the almost deserted lawn in front of the building. I looked around too, remembering the first time I’d seen him—those black eyes raging with raw intensity. I realized then that the cause of his hateful stare had been me. If just the sight of me had triggered him, I blanched at the thought of what would happen if we touched.
“You’d better go,” Lucas said. “I think you’re late for class.”
“Shoot!” I said, starting out of my thoughts. “I’m always late for this class!”
“You’re always late for everything.”
I eyed him, wondering just how much he knew about me.
“Go,” he said. “I gotta jet if I’m gonna be back before dusk.”
I opened the door of the building and stepped inside, turning to watch Lucas walk away through the door. I pressed my hand against it and let the frigid glass burn my skin. It hurt, but I kept my hand there, feeling the solidity of the glass, the invisible barrier between us—the secrets we kept from each other and held close to our guarded hearts. Those gruesome secrets which made it unlikely that Lucas and I would ever be together.
12
CAPTIVE
Hours later, I sat in my room, jiggling my leg against the carpeted floor, unable to concentrate on anything. My mind spun in frantic circles, all of which revolved around Vincent’s cruel face and his tongue licking my blood from his cold lips. I was tormented by what I couldn’t control—the inevitability of nightfall, which would descend upon me in a matter of hours and along with it, danger.
I stood up. I needed a distraction. Since I still had no cell phone after my botched attempt to buy one online, I grabbed the dorm phone on my bedside table, wincing as it shocked me with a loud crack. I stared at the phone, feeling my bones vibrate from the electricity. There was definitely something freaky going on with the zaps, but I had no clue what. It only reinforced my need for distraction. I shook off the feeling of unease and dialed the number I knew by heart. I needed to feel safe and normal for a while, and I knew the exact person who could do that for me.
“Hi,” I said into the receiver.
“Hey,” said Heather. “How’s it going?”
“You hungry?” I asked.
“Oh . . . actually, I’m at lunch with Pete right now.”
My heart sank.
“Pete?” I asked. “So you two are . . .”
“Together? Yep, we are. It was like I said. He was just really drunk and he apologized for everything.”
I didn’t say anything. I could have told her how many times my stepdad tried to apologize for what he did to my mom and me, but it wouldn’t have made a difference. They were already back together. Heather had actually forgiven him. But I’d be damned if I was going to do the same.
“Did you want to join us?” Heather offered.
“No,” I said, hoping I didn’t sound as furious as I was.
Heather began to say something, but I cut her off. “It’s no biggie. Talk to you later.” I hung up. Seeing Heather and Pete together was not what I needed right now. I’d probably bite his head off if I saw him. What I needed was a friend. And Heather was the only one I had left.
I sat up straight in my chair.
Derek is speaking to me now, right? Sort of? I decided to call him.
“Hey, Faith,” said Derek when he picked up. He sounded wary.
“Hi,” I said. “Listen, I need to buy a new phone, do you want to come with me?”
Derek hesitated. “I don’t know. I’ve got a ton of homework and a game this weekend so—”
“Please, Derek? I know you’re upset, but I wouldn’t have called unless I really needed you. I just need to talk to you . . . to feel normal again.”
I heard Derek sigh hugely. “Meet me in front of your building in ten minutes. I’ll pick you up.”
“Thanks, Derek,” I said.
Derek hung up without saying anything.
He was still mad at me, or hurt, or both. Maybe going out on a casual trip would smooth over some of our issues. Maybe we just needed to spend some time together, to get back into a routine. And the outing would serve a dual purpose because I needed to hang around someone who wasn’t secretly a werewolf or a vampire. I needed normal, if only for a few hours.
After dressing, I raced downstairs to see Derek’s silver Mazda parked in front of my building. He leaned over to push the door open for me and I hopped in.
“Hey,” I said. I took in the familiar face of my best friend, feeling my heart flip in my chest. “Wow, you got a haircut.”
“Yup,” Derek said, touching his now much shorter locks. The tips of his hair used to fall into his eyes, but now they stood up straight and away from his face. It was a good look for him. I found myself staring a little.
“I like it,” I said. “Very cute.”
A muscle in Derek’s jaw twitched as he pulled the car out of park and took off toward a strip mall.
“It’s great to see you,” I said after a way too long silence.
“Mm-hmm,” Derek hummed, drumming his fingers over the steering wheel.
“You don’t seem happy,” I said carefully.
Derek forced his face into this overly happy smile and looked at me for a second.
“Better?” he asked coldly.
I turned away, swallowing hard as a lump grew in my throat. I took a deep breath and decided to face this full on.
“You wanna tell me what the problem is?” I asked. “You’re the one who called me and said you broke up with Courtney and that you missed me. I took that as a sign that you wanted to be friends again.”
Derek’s whole face seemed to ripple with the extreme effort of staying calm.
“Isn’t that what you meant?” I asked.
Derek hesitated, glanced at me and then said, “Yeah. That’s what I meant. I’m sorry. I’m just having a crappy day.”
I searched his face for signs of deceit. If he was lying, he hid it well, but I still got the feeling that I had misinterpreted what he’d meant on the phone and I was now making things worse. And Derek obviously didn’t want to discuss it, so I followed his lead.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Nothing. Just junk with football.”
“You can tell me about it, if you want.”
He looked for a moment as though he was going to tell me off, but he must have decided against it because he started talking instead.
“I haven’t been doing so hot in my classes,” he said. “And if I don’t start doing better I’m going to lose my scholarship. And then my dad called me and chewed me out because he saw the game on TV and saw me miss that pass that lost the game.”
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “I didn’t know you were having such a hard time.”
“Yeah, well, you wouldn’t.”
“And that’s my fault?” I asked, getting fired up. “You stopped talking to me, remember?”
“Because you rejected me! I told you I loved you and you completely stomped on my heart like it was nothing.”
I stopped short on the comeback I had prepared. I watched his eyes as he focused on the road, the downturn of his lips and the hoarse way his voice had come out. He was right. I’d never paused to think what that night on the La Poudre had been like for him. He’d put himself out there, kissed me, and then I’d promptly turned him down. In my mind it’d been obvious all along that I would deny him, but Derek had really been holding onto the hope that I wouldn’t. And I’d crushed him.
I’d simply expected him to get over it immediately, to act as though i
t hadn’t happened. But now I could see that the reason he’d stopped talking to me wasn’t because he didn’t want to be friends anymore. It was because he needed time to get over the fact that I would never be his girlfriend. That I would never be able to love him the way he deserved.
In high school, it had taken me months to get over his cheating and he’d waited patiently for me to be ready to forgive him. Now I had to do the same for him.
“You’re right,” I said.
His frown deepened.
“I was insensitive to what you were going through. I’m sorry.”
For a moment, I saw a glimmer of softness pass through Derek’s eyes, but then it disappeared and he just nodded silently.
I pressed my fingers into my temples. This was so not going well. “Derek, you just passed the mall. You have to make a U-turn.”
Derek cursed and slammed on the brakes. As he did so, the dashboard compartment popped open and I stared at its contents.
There was a gun inside.
“Derek,” I whispered. “What the hell is that?”
He glanced sideways at me as he steered us into the strip mall.
“What’s it look like?”
“Why on earth do you have a gun?”
“I went camping on the La Poudre a few times with Mark—he left it by accident. It’s not a big deal.” He reached over and smacked the drawer closed.
“Why haven’t you given it back yet?”
“I just haven’t, okay?” He thrust himself out of the car.
Weirded out, but unwilling to badger him, I let the subject drop and followed Derek cautiously into the store.
The rest of the trip was spent in pretty much the same manner. Derek remained mute while I made desperate attempts to turn us back into the friends we’d always been. But my attempts were totally wasted. No matter what I did or didn’t do, Derek kept his arms crossed over his chest and his responses restricted to noncommittal grunts.
Blood on the Moon Page 14
